Wall Street waffles and see-saws

Wall Street waffled before finishing lower today as oil prices also see-sawed and traders weighed lacklustre earnings from Xerox Corp against a surge in housing prices.

Investors were nervous about oil after crude futures’ rally on Friday. So stocks gave up early gains as oil crept upward; futures finally closed at 59dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 35 cents.